Closer Examination

It has been a while since I last reviewed a full size keyboard! CORSAIR wanted to get this review out for launch date and logistics meant they sent over a UK language, ISO layout keyboard this time to guarantee it. This is worth mentioning because the vast majority of keyboards on the market only cater to the US ANSI layout leaving many in Europe and other regions to make do with the paltry few options they get every year. The K70 CORE is also somewhat unique in this regard since the US ANSI keyboards get slightly different keycaps and I also do not know if the other color versions will be made available in the other languages/layouts either! So here too there is some preferential treatment towards the most popular keyboard layout but at least you do get other options that are pretty much the same when it comes to the core of things. This is otherwise a fairly petite keyboard with minimal bezels and the top right corner hosting not only the indicator LEDs as usual but also a custom media button and rotary dial that are set to play/pause and volume control by default, but can be customized as we will soon see. Branding comes in the form of the CORSAIR logo printed above the arrow keys as well as the space bar key with the same design as on the wrist rest. General secondary legends are placed below the primary ones on the numpad and alongside in the alphanumeric section with keyboard-specific legends located below on the Fn key row. The keycap legends are otherwise biased towards the top center in a clean font to take advantage of the backlighting on offer in this north-facing LED configuration.


Turning the keyboard around, we see an ABS plastic chassis that has the expected certification sticker, albeit placed on the bottom right corner to make way for the CORSAIR logo and a few lines for aesthetics presumably. More relevant is the set of rubber pads on the corners to help prevent the keyboard from sliding on your desk. The top two pads are attached to large keyboard feet which can be raised up for an additional elevation step.


There is no wireless connectivity and neither do we get a detachable cable as previously mentioned. This will irk potential customers no doubt given even more budget-friendly keyboards have gone with Type-C wired connectivity on the keyboard but in practice I dare say the target consumer is less likely to ever move this large keyboard off the desk once set up—especially with the wrist rest taking up even more room on your desk. The wire comes out the left side facing away from the user so it is less likely to tangle up with a mouse wire for right-handed users. It is also black in color on this model anyway and has a simple rubber sleeve on the 6' long cable which terminates in a USB Type-A connector headed to your PC where USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB 3.0) is recommended as a minimum for power and data alike.


A look from the side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which I would classify as medium-high profile and can benefit from the provided wrist rest if you are not used to touch typing with hands hovering over the keys at all times. The side view also confirms the use of an OEM keycap profile with the six rows sculpted and contoured accordingly, and they are floating in design courtesy the single-piece case design. There is no keycap puller included so the floating nature of the keycaps helps remove them for cleaning/swapping out. At this point I should mention that the US ANSI layout comes with thicker doubleshot ABS keycaps whereas everyone else gets thinner ABS keycaps with laser-etched legends. So while there is backlighting support on both types the US ANSI keycaps won't have the keycap legends fading out over time. Note also that the north-facing LED configuration here means the legends placed towards the bottom of the keycaps may not be lit up as uniformly or as bright as those above.


Regardless of which color or layout/language version you go with, the CORSAIR K70 CORE only comes in a single switch option in the form of the brand's new CORSAIR MLX Red linear mechanical switch. This continues the trend of CORSAIR, as with its competitors, coming up with custom branded and designed switches with the OPX (optical) and MGX (magnetic Hall effect) switches seen before. I was expecting to see the use of Cherry's new MX2A switches given CORSAIR's close association with the German switch maker, but perhaps not any more. These switches seem to be aimed directly at the Cherry MX Red which is the most popular mechanical keyboard switch still in use today. The K70 CORE uses an aluminium plate that has the plastic case going all around it and the larger keycaps use plate mounted stabilizers which are lightly lubed to help mitigate the mushy feeling they could otherwise have.

I did my best to disassemble the keyboard in a non-destructive manner, including removing all the screws accessible by removing certain keycaps, but the plastic case around the aluminium plate seemed tightly put together. As such, since I did not want to risk breaking the keyboard, I decided to skip the disassembly section altogether and move on to the software page. I will mention that the keyboard has two EVA foam sheets placed between the plate and the PCB as well as between the PCB and the case to help dampen keystrokes and minimize any reverberations too.